For the first time in nearly a year, Venette Ovilde, who legally changed her name to Krisla Rezireksyon, and Myriam Janvier appeared in Superior Court in Newark for their alleged roles in the death of Christiana Glenn. Both women remained silent as their attorneys entered pleas on their behalf, and a status conference hearing was scheduled for Sept. 11.

Glenn died in May of 2011, after police and investigators from the Division of Youth and Family services discovered the broken and malnourished bodies of Ovilde’s three young children inside a white-washed Irvington apartment. […]

Relatives also contributed Ovilde and Janvier’s behavior to a religious conversion, one that started when they joined the self-stylized “Walking With Christ” faith under the advisement of pastor Emanyel Rezireksyon-Kris.

It was Kris, relatives said, who ordered the women to fast, dress in all white and cut ties with other relatives. But Kris also told the women not to beat the children, according to the DYFS documents.

He was never charged in Glenn’s death. But Janvier’s attorney, Bukie Adetula, said yesterday that prosecutors had “pointed the finger at the wrong person.”

According to the paper’s earlier reports relatives of Ovilde and her roommate spoke of the all-consuming influence wielded by the pair’s spiritual leader, Emanyel Rezireksyon Kris — a name which in Haitian Creole means “Christ is here.”

landlord William Weathers told the Star-Ledger that the women had removed all their furniture and belongings and piled them on the sidewalk, and he saw the floors and doorways of the apartment covered with white material.

He frequently heard loud chanting or prayers in Creole and French coming from the women’s apartment.

Authorities says that Ovilde legally changed her name to Krisla Rezireksyon Kris and changed the children’s last names to Rezireksyon – pronounced ‘resurrection’ – after their leader.

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